[Elecraft] Re: Mobile/portable antennas

[Mike Morrow]

VK6DXR wrote:

> Just a quick word to say  totally disagree with KK5F's
> comments about the Outbacker antennas.

Whoops!  Instead of addressing any issue raised in my original post,
you have created a straw man to attack which arises not at all from
ANY aspect of my post.

> I and many of my club mates use them on a daily basis and
> they certainly do work.

So does a set of bed springs under right circumstances!

> I am mobile at work and consistantly get excellent reports using my 
> Outbacker on 40 and 20 mtrs over a 500-800 mile path from my Mitsi 
> outlander with 100w and a TS 50.
> I also have had many DX contacts on 20 and 15 mtrs while driving around 
> Western Australia.

Ah...I see the problem now.  You are describing Outbacker use as a **mobile**
antenna, compared to other mobile antennas.  Strange you should do that.
My post made **NO** assertions about mobile use of any type of antenna.
My remarks simply discussed the use of vertical antennas (such as Outbacker
gear) in a portable (but not moving) application, compared to dipoles.

I know Outbacker gear.  I have $700 worth of what should be the most
effective fixed-portable Outbacker installation that the company has
*ever* offered:

(1) The "Outreach" 12 foot (!) 160-10m whip ($420), which is the longest
    (almost twice the length of their standard mobile whip) and presumably
    the most effective HF whip in the *entire* Outbacker product inventory.
(2) The "Outpost" tripod mounting base ($290), which it is claimed will
    somehow capacitively couple to ground and be ideally suited for use
    with the "Outreach" in particular.

I have operated HF from campsites since the 1960s.  It's something with which
I have some degree of familiarity.  I have used this very expensive combo a
number of times in the past seven years at campsites in the Arkansas Ozarks
and the Tennessee and Alabama Appalachians.  For comparison purposes, I also
set up a simple home-made multi-band wire dipole ($20) at nine feet above ground.
I made contacts on 40m through 10m using both antennas.  In *EVERY* instance,
on *EVERY* band, the vertical installation was 2 to 4 **S-units** lower in
receive and transmit performance, compared to the dipole.  I found NO exceptions
to this.  I've now relegated the Outbacker stuff to permanent retirement.
Fool me once...!

> Just cos you have had no luck dont paint the antenna black.

I simply point out the *extremely poor* performance of portable vertical
antennas in general, compared to cheap home-made wire dipoles.  Most (IMHO, all)
commercial multi-band HF vertical systems have very low performance-to-price
ratios.  The Outreach/Outpost is running for the lowest ratio due to its high
price.  However, it likely performs no worse than any other vertical at a
temporary site.  No matter how poorly these temporary verticals perform,
contacts can still be made using them.  That keeps customers coming, and happy
until some actual in-service performance comparisons are made, which most buyers
will never do.  Ignorance can be bliss, when several hundred dollars have been
expended! 

Likewise, it is likely that the Outbacker performs no worse than any other
vertical antenna in a mobile application.   I'll repeat again:  That wasn't
an issue in my post.  THE issue was:  HF vertical antennas at temporary sites,
where no satisfactory ground system is in place, will without exception be
significantly lower in performance compared to a simple dipole, even when the
dipole is mounted only a few feet above ground, and even when some magical
"ground-coupling" base is attached to the vertical!

You are familiar with mobile use of Outbacker gear, but evidently are not
similarly familiar with its use in the application I described.  I hope that
these details, demonstrated in actual use, will give you a more complete
understanding of the system's limitations.

73,
Mike / KK5F